Bill Simmon's Take

[DePastino]

Thing is with so-called sports "journalism," it's all about the bandwagon. The editors sit around the table and decide what's "real." There's a building buzz that the Spurs are dirty, and this jackass is just piling on in a cowardly and unoriginal fashion.

The real story is much more nuanced, as we all know, but that's not what will grab the casual fans attention.
Clearly the media wants a story in which the Suns are America's Team, and the Spurs invented dirty basketball.

Kinda ironic, isn't it, since for years we've been labeled as Soft.

And the Suns "don't play any defense". What else is new?

The media feels like it has to put "labels" on everyone. Everyone fitting into neat little categories makes their life easier I guess.

[L.I.T]

Simmons is inconsistent. He's always praising the Spurs for old-school play, bashes them now. Within his own article he contradicts himself. First deriding Bowen for playing tough-nosed defense, then lambasting the current defensive tactics of flopping left and right.

I blame this on Pitino, no Celtic fan could remain sane after that era.

[aaronstampler]

Simmons is a hypocrite of the highest order. There are so many contradictions in his article, I don't know where to begin.

1) His "tuck-rule" analogy is a total flip-flop. After it happened he argued that it was a good rule, that it was fairly called, that the Patriots totally deserved to win the game and that anyone complaining about it was a crybaby and a whiner. He even tried to rationalize it, saying if Jon Gruden was less conservative with his play-calling in the 4th quarter, the Raiders would've killed the clock and won the game outright. Now that the Pats have 3 rings (and are favored to win a 4th this year) he's more objective about the whole thing and concedes it's a stupid rule. What a clown.

2) He doesn't like that Bowen is a chippy, dirty player, but defends the good ol' days when players were allowed to beat the out of each other. The reason Bowen is effective is because other players hate to play against him. Tim loves Bruce. Ask Isiah what he thought of Laimbeer and Rodman. Ask Magic what he thought of Rambis. Ask Jordan what he thought of first Oakley, then Cartwright, then Rodman. You need gritty, chippy players to win. Is it any wonder that the Suns have more of an edge now because they have Bell on their roster?

3) Speaking of Bell, I found it ironic that Simmons has focused on Bowen and ignored all the liberties that Bell has taken on Manu and Tony over the course of the series. The only difference is our guys don't complain to the media after games.

4) Has he been watching the series at all? Practically every time Tony's covered Nash, we've gotten the better of the matchup. Whenever Bowen's been on him, Nash has destroyed Bruce. One would think that Nash would be begging for Bowen to cover him all game, especially now that so much has been said about Bruce that the refs are targeting him.

5) Simmons has been on the Suns' nuts all year, saying how much he loves how they play, loves their free-flowing offense, and he conveniently ignores that they're the softest team in the NBA. If this team played in the 90s with the Bulls, the Pistons, and the Knicks, they would have the beat out of them and been lucky to win 47 games. When Bird's Celtics were hammering the Suns on the boards by 30, Simmons would've been mocking these guys to no end.

6) Finally, I'm getting sick and tired of how much Simmons trashes foreign players. As if American players never tried to exaggerate fouls before 2002. This guy was kissing Manu's butt in '05 and now he slams him at every opportunity. It's gotten to the point that Ginobili could practically have his eye gouged out and people accuse him of flopping. Did Simmons make one mention of the cut under Manu's eye? No. You know why? Because Ginobili doesn't whine like a little girl about the fouls he gets after a game to the press. Even when he's gotten flagrant fouls against him and guys have gotten ejected, like Melo, Manu never said anything bad about anybody. Simmons' rant is both racist and xenophobic. Stop blaming foreigners for everything.

7) Yeah, defenders flop more to draw offensive fouls. So what? Look at all the advantages offensive players have now. They can set moving picks. Defenders can't hand check. The guys can carry the ball on their dribbles like The Professor. Yeah if somebody played like Bell 15 years ago he'd probably get decked. But if somebody dribbled like Tony or AI 15 years ago, they'd commit 30 turnovers a night. Games evolve and rules are interpreted differently over the years. You aren't even allowed to cover receivers in the NFL anymore or pitch inside in baseball. Simmons should grow up.

[da_suns_fan__]

Simmons is a hypocrite of the highest order. There are so many contradictions in his article, I don't know where to begin.

1) His "tuck-rule" analogy is a total flip-flop. After it happened he argued that it was a good rule, that it was fairly called, that the Patriots totally deserved to win the game and that anyone complaining about it was a crybaby and a whiner. He even tried to rationalize it, saying if Jon Gruden was less conservative with his play-calling in the 4th quarter, the Raiders would've killed the clock and won the game outright. Now that the Pats have 3 rings (and are favored to win a 4th this year) he's more objective about the whole thing and concedes it's a stupid rule. What a clown.

2) He doesn't like that Bowen is a chippy, dirty player, but defends the good ol' days when players were allowed to beat the out of each other. The reason Bowen is effective is because other players hate to play against him. Tim loves Bruce. Ask Isiah what he thought of Laimbeer and Rodman. Ask Magic what he thought of Rambis. Ask Jordan what he thought of first Oakley, then Cartwright, then Rodman. You need gritty, chippy players to win. Is it any wonder that the Suns have more of an edge now because they have Bell on their roster?

3) Speaking of Bell, I found it ironic that Simmons has focused on Bowen and ignored all the liberties that Bell has taken on Manu and Tony over the course of the series. The only difference is our guys don't complain to the media after games.

4) Has he been watching the series at all? Practically every time Tony's covered Nash, we've gotten the better of the matchup. Whenever Bowen's been on him, Nash has destroyed Bruce. One would think that Nash would be begging for Bowen to cover him all game, especially now that so much has been said about Bruce that the refs are targeting him.

5) Simmons has been on the Suns' nuts all year, saying how much he loves how they play, loves their free-flowing offense, and he conveniently ignores that they're the softest team in the NBA. If this team played in the 90s with the Bulls, the Pistons, and the Knicks, they would have the beat out of them and been lucky to win 47 games. When Bird's Celtics were hammering the Suns on the boards by 30, Simmons would've been mocking these guys to no end.

6) Finally, I'm getting sick and tired of how much Simmons trashes foreign players. As if American players never tried to exaggerate fouls before 2002. This guy was kissing Manu's butt in '05 and now he slams him at every opportunity. It's gotten to the point that Ginobili could practically have his eye gouged out and people accuse him of flopping. Did Simmons make one mention of the cut under Manu's eye? No. You know why? Because Ginobili doesn't whine like a little girl about the fouls he gets after a game to the press. Even when he's gotten flagrant fouls against him and guys have gotten ejected, like Melo, Manu never said anything bad about anybody. Simmons' rant is both racist and xenophobic. Stop blaming foreigners for everything.

7) Yeah, defenders flop more to draw offensive fouls. So what? Look at all the advantages offensive players have now. They can set moving picks. Defenders can't hand check. The guys can carry the ball on their dribbles like The Professor. Yeah if somebody played like Bell 15 years ago he'd probably get decked. But if somebody dribbled like Tony or AI 15 years ago, they'd commit 30 turnovers a night. Games evolve and rules are interpreted differently over the years. You aren't even allowed to cover receivers in the NFL anymore or pitch inside in baseball. Simmons should grow up.

8) Yeah, swear LAST ONE...uh...Simmons sucks.

9) Ok one more...uh....Spurs aren't as bad as everyone is making out.

10) Why stop now? Duncan is great.

11) In closing, David Robinson was a class act.

12) Robert Horry won't be remmembered for this.

13) My favorite movie was "LOTR: Return of the King"

14) I thank you for reading my post.

Sincerely,

DSF.

















15) Why is that everytime the Spurs drive to the lane.....

[Que Gee]

That's the most comical thing I've ever seen. They should be down on their knees thanking God that the fake firestorm over the Spurs being dirty has completely obscured the fact that the Warriors are the biggest cheap shot artists in the last ten years.

The biggest cheap shot artests in the league for the last 10 years, have been and will be as long as they are coach by Jerry Sloan, the Utah Jazz. You take a poll of the NBA and I GUARANTEE they would say that. Just like Matt Barnes quote, "they seemed to have always caught us retailiating."

[stretch]

COMPLETELY different? Aren't they directly related?

If not being able to handle the ball well isn't caused by not having enough control over your body (lack of coordination) then what is the reason that a person is a bad ball handler?

And don't say lack of practice because I'm pretty sure that Bowen has practiced dribbling a few times in his life.

how many SF's handle the ball much period? about 90% of the ball handling in basketball is done by the PG. i guarantee there are plenty of incredible athletes in the sports world who can do amazing things with their bodies and hands and such, perhaps a WR, but i doubt any NFL WR can handle the ball as efficiently as an NBA PG. and Bowen handles the ball fine. its not like every single time he dribbles, he turns it over or something. he just chooses not to dribble much, because its not what he is supposed to be doing. that is Tony Parker's job. but i guarantee if Bowen dropped into just a local pickup game at a gym or something, he could handle the ball just fine, without a single turnover.

[stretch]

The biggest cheap shot artests in the league for the last 10 years, have been and will be as long as they are coach by Jerry Sloan, the Utah Jazz. You take a poll of the NBA and I GUARANTEE they would say that. Just like Matt Barnes quote, "they seemed to have always caught us retailiating."

yea, the Jazz are a dirty-ass team.